Mikaela
by Myka
Summary: Short echoes of Mikaela's life.
1. Shindo - Mama

Mikaela remembers his mother taking him to a strange place. A big two story house hidden down a dark street, five blocks from their house.

It had rained earlier that evening, and while his mother pulled his hand hastily. Mikaela pretended each puddle was a bottomless pit he had to jump over, otherwise he would die.

The big house was empty and poorly lit. Broken lamps and rows of candles offered little illumination and Mikaela clung to his mother's skirt while she pulled him past the threshold. Mikaela looked up towards the ceiling. There were statues of people close to the edges of the second floor. Their faces sad, or crying, Mikaela didn't like the statues.

Mother went into one of the rows, kneeling on a little platform and squeezing her hands together as she closed her eyes. Mikaela stared at her, unsure of what to do. He saw her lips moving, soft whispers escaping them.

"Mama, what are you doing?" he asked.

"Shh!" his mother spat. "I'm praying for your father to come back home."

Mikaela didn't understand. Father wasn't here. "What's praying?"

His mother shushed him again. "I'm asking God to help us."

Mikaela stretched his little body up, standing on tiptoe barely seeing past the pew.

He didn't see anybody there.


	2. Shindo - Papa

Father came back on a Tuesday.

Mikaela was playing with his favorite toys — a pair of tiny plastic dolls — while the TV played the news in the background. Mother was in a little alcove nearby, kneeling in front of a lit candle.

"The monster is under the couch," Mikaela said as he tossed one of the dolls under the old piece of furniture and chased after it.

The door opened. Mikaela looked up. Mother started whispering.

"Papa!"

Mikaela dropped the toys and ran to his father. Wrapping himself around his father right leg. His hands could almost touch each other on the other side.

"Papa," Mikaela sighed happily. Papa was back. Maybe they could play together.

His father made a noise, and Mikaela had a moment to memorize the warm feeling of hugging his father before he looked up and saw Father's blue eyes twist and recoil before his open palm struck Mikaela's cheek.


	3. Shindo - Fly

Mikaela remembers flying, just like Mother had said. Albeit briefly, until his tiny body hit the pavement head first.

Things cracks, his vision blurred. Pain exploded through his body, his mouth filled with blood, and when he finally stopped rolling he heard the crunch of metal and felt the heat of the flames.

"Mama… Papa…"

It was better when it all went dark.


	4. Shindo - Orphanage

Mikaela's arm was still in a tight cast when a man with dark hair told him it was time to leave the hospital.

He didn't complain, he didn't ask who the man was, he didn't think of much of anything until the car slowed to a crawl and stopped in front of a building.

Mikaela peeked past the window at the sign near the gate. "Hyaku.."

"This is the Hyakuya Orphanage. Your new home."

Mikaela glanced at the man. "Orphanage… That means no one wanted me right?"

The man's eyes didn't soften or looked at him with pity. "That's right," he said matter of fact. "None of your remaining family wanted to keep you."

Mikaela thought he would feel sad, but he didn't. He felt nothing really.

Movement caught the corner of his eyes. The door to the orphanage opened and a small girl with brown hair ran out with two even smaller boys following behind. They were laughing.

Mikaela pressed his hand against the window eagerly. "Is that my new family?" he asked.

The man's eyebrows rose momentarily as a small smile appeared on his lips. "Yes," he said. "That is your family."


	5. Hyakuya - Big Brother

The girl with the brown hair stared at Mikaela intently until her lips pursed into a frown. "You're taller than me."

"Ah…" Mikaela wasn't sure what she meant by that.

"Are you going to live here? Or are you here to adopt one of us?" The taller of the boys asked. He stood next to the girl, his hair was long, and his glasses dirty.

"Don't adopt me!" The younger boy cried and clung to the girl. "I want to stay here."

"Kouta…" the girl patted the crying boy's hair. "It's good to get adopted. If you get adopted you can have a real family."

Kouta sniffled. "But I want big sister, Chihiro, and Fumie to be my real family," he cried.

"Eh…" Mikaela tried to get their attention. "I'm not here to adopt anyone," he said. "The man said this is my home now."

Kouta still had tears in his eyes when they suddenly went wide and a huge smile broke on his face. "So you're going to be our new big sister!"

Chihiro swatted Kouta on the head. "Idiot. He's a boy. He's our big brother."

Kouta's eyes watered again. He stared at Chihiro angrily then ran to Mikaela. "Wahhhh! Big brother! Chihiro hit me!"

Chihiro flushed with embarrassment. "Hey!"

Mikaela just looked at them silently for a second that seemed to extend into forever. The feeling of this boy he didn't know hugging him. The sound of the girl's gentle laughter — so warm and welcoming — Mikaela couldn't recall a single thing that had made him feel like this before.

Chihiro tried desperately to apologize, and for the first time in a very very long time, Mikaela laughed to his heart's content.


	6. Hyakuya - Family

"Big brother, Mika! We finished putting the toys away."

Mikaela turned around, shuffling the giant blanket in his arms so he could see Kouta and Ako grinning proudly at him. He remembered when they first called him Mika. Ako had struggled to say Mikaela the day she arrived at the orphanage, only able to say Mika as her eyes started to water. "I like Mika," he had told her, and it wasn't a lie. A new name for a new home.

A new home he might have to leave.

An hour earlier the director had told him that a couple was interested in adopting him. He'd been here just over a month, he had just started thinking of it as home, and now he may have to get used to another home.

Mikaela wasn't so sure how he felt about that.

"Mikaela it's time," the director called.

"Time for what?" Ako asked. Mikaela smiled and laid the blanket on the bed. He patted Ako's head. "I'll tell you later," then followed the director.

* * *

A woman with golden hair sat on the bench in the orphanage's back garden while a man stood next to her. The pair chatted amicably with warm smiles on their faces. Mikaela wondered if they were talking about him.

"Go introduce yourself," the director nudged him forward. Mikaela tried to be as quiet as possible, but the woman spotted him quickly. Her smile became wider.

"Hello," Mikaela said, and without warning, the woman knelt in front of him and wrapped her arms around him. It was strange, he thought, but it wasn't scary. Maybe a new home wouldn't be so bad. These people didn't seem like his mom or dad, yet going with them meant no longer being a Hyakuya. No more dinners with everyone, no more games…

The woman released him and stood back up, when she did her necklace untangled from her dress and caught Mikaela's attention. It was a symbol he remembered vividly. The same one his mother had in the place she made wishes.

"I don't want to go," he whispered.

The man reached for him, but Mikaela moved out of reach before he could be touched. "I don't want to go with you," he said louder. "I don't want to go. I don't want to go! I want to stay here!" His voice got louder and louder with every statement, more frantic, and desperate.

He ran back towards the orphanage, not looking back, not worrying what the pair thought. He just wanted to be home, he just wanted to be with his family.


End file.
